May Words of Wisdom

No day in life is a dress rehearsal, so every day is worthy of our best china. --Rachel Ashwell

Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional. --Roger Crawford

 

People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing - refusing to participate in activities that make life bad. --Leo Tolstoy

 

There is absolutely no reason for being rushed along with the rush. Everybody should be free to go slow. --Robert Frost

All your life long you are slowly turning into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other. --C.S. Lewis

 

The reason we feel alienated is because the society is infantile, trivial, and stupid. So the cost of this society is a certain level of alienation. --Terence McKenna 

 

Don't tell me to ride a bus and turn down my thermostat, when you're all running around in jets and Cadillacs. --Hank Williams, Jr.

And now, a couple of palate cleansers:

My grandkids always beat me at Rock Band. And I say, "Listen, you may beat me at Rock Band, but I made the original records, so shut up." --Paul McCartney

 

If Lizzo is so beautiful, why do women get mad any time I tell them, "You look like Lizzo."? --Jeff Dye

 

The ultimate sacrifice

Remembering those who gave all. They deserve a whole month, not just a day.

Great-Uncle Francis

Double Whammy: The season finale of "Yellowjackets" and the series finale of "Barry" (SPOILERS!!!)

Let's get Yellowjackets out of the way first, because I'm pissed about the fate of Adult Natalie and am officially hating Adult Tai and Adult Van. I also wouldn't miss Adult Lottie all that much if they lock her up in the loony bin and forget about her.

 

 

Part of my problem with the Taissa storyline is that she is a recently elected politician and yet episode after episode no press has been sniffing around despite the fact that she disappears for extended periods of time without question, plus the issues with Simone and Sammy, then the car accident, and yet she just comes and goes as she pleases without any interference or question. And her and Van calling off the psych intervention on their own was stupid even before it doomed Natalie, who had emerged (in my opinion) as the most interesting of the surviving adult Yellowjackets.

 

I'm also curious as to if and when the show is going to address the fact that a lot of what the Yellowjackets went through in the wilderness was due to Misty destroying the transponder. You have to wonder how much sooner they would have been rescued had she not done that. The adults clearly don't know, because if they did there's no way they would have anything to do with her. She would be persona non grata on steroids. I hope this is addressed at some point. I have enjoyed the development of Shauna's daughter Callie, who went from annoying sullen teen in the vein of Harrison Morgan to damn interesting and effective.

On top of all this, the fire at the end made for a terrific cliffhanger. When coach was lifting the matches, I thought it was to take them back to the cave so he could make a fire to warm himself. So did he decide that the girls had become so evil he was willing to burn them alive?

 

I also want to note that the actresses who play the teens have belted it out of the park this season. As their situation has devolved and survival at any cost has become their everyday struggle and reality, there hasn't been a false note in any of their performances. The actresses playing Teen Natalie and Teen Shauna especially, but the whole cast is just freaking amazing. 

 

Also, there's this: 

$200. If the economy wasn't so terrifying right now, I'd have already ordered this baby.

 

And never, ever, ask me to pick a card ever again.

 

The wonderfully offbeat (and increasingly dark) Barry came to an end tonight, and I thought they did a great job on the finale. The hitman turned aspiring actor did finally pay for his many crimes while seeming to have gotten some sort of redemption, Sally got a somewhat happy ending (although she appears to have understandable issues getting involved with anyone - I was really hoping that teacher at the end would be the man she deserved), and Fuches had his own redemption when he saved Sally and John. Of course, the one person who got totally screwed was Gene Cousineau. Having him kill Barry just as the former hitman was about to turn himself in, a move that would have straightened out the story of Detective Moss's murder and saved Gene, was just savage. 

And the film got made! Watching The Mask Collector with John, as the movie got everything about the story of Barry and Gene so wrong, was to me a sort of gleeful call-out of how Hollywood has so little relationship to truth. Fuches is completely absent in the movie - having left the Army and feeling rudderless, Barry gets off the bus in Hollywood and the first thing he sees is a theater that becomes his chance to have a purpose in life. Gene is presented as a suave, British-accented criminal mastermind using his acting school as a front for his nefarious activities with the Chechen gang. Showing him as the true murderer of Detective Janice Moss, and forcing Barry to help him cover up the crime was pure Hollywood bullshit. And the tag at the end of the film, that Gene Cousineau is now serving a life sentence for the murders of Janice Moss and Barry Berkman is an incredibly cruel fate for the one-time pretentious acting teacher and author of Hit Your Mark and Say Your Lines who loved Janice so much. Oh, and Barry Berkman was buried at Arlington Cemetery with full honors. Poor Gene, so close to being cleared...and then he's the architect of his own downfall. Just brutal.

Barry is one of those shows where happy endings for all the characters we've loved just isn't possible, but I thought it rang true. There was redemption, there was survival, there was some justice, and there was tragedy. Well done, Bill Hader and Alec Berg. There was some meandering this season, but it had a purpose and it all wrapped up the way it should. Also props to both the creators and HBO for understanding that this wasn't a show that could go for seven plus seasons, that it had to come to an end at some point, and that point needed to be sooner rather than later. Well done, everyone involved, and I'm looking forward to going back to the beginning and reliving it again.

 

RIP Barry, and Yellowjackets, you have some 'splaining to do.

 

House-hunting, California style!

The Babylon Bee strikes again!

Be sure to watch all the way to the end to learn how your state can become a third-world shithole just like California!

 

NOOOOOOOO, NOT RICK DALTON!!!

RIP to a fine actor. A wonderful actor and (along with his buddy Cliff Booth and Cliff's faithful dog Brandy) vanquisher of Manson Family scum. A flamethrower extraordinaire. RIP Rick Dalton. You made Los Angeles a better place.

Happy Mother's Day

Five years.

 

Also, today is twelve years to the day since my Dad passed away. 

 

Just gonna hang out and take it easy today.

Theater: "Ava: The Secret Conversations" at Geffen Playhouse

Ava: The Secret Conversations was presented at the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse.

Ava: The Secret Conversations

Written by Elizabeth McGovern

(based on the book Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations by Peter Shaw & Ava Gardner)

Directed by Moritz von Steulpnagel

Starring Elizabeth McGovern, Aaron Costa Ganis, Ryan W. Garcia

Ava Gardner, who grew up in a small town in North Carolina, was summoned to Hollywood when her portrait was spotted in the window of her photographer brother-in-law's Fifth Avenue studio. She had no ambitions and not much talent, but her stunning looks propelled her to Hollywood stardom and a certain degree of infamy due to the lusty passions she never felt the need to keep private. She was only nineteen when she married Mickey Rooney, then one of the biggest stars in the world. Her second husband was clarinetist/band leader Artie Shaw (she was the fifth of his eight wives, a group that also included actresses Lana Turner and Evelyn Keyes). Her third marriage was to Frank Sinatra, at a time when Sinatra's career was at its lowest point, a couple years out from his Oscar winning performance in From Here to Eternity. He was also still married to his first wife when he took up with Ava, making it a scandalous affair. In addition to her marriages, Gardner also had a lengthy, ongoing affair with Howard Hughes.

As I blogged last month, when I originally went to see this play the area suffered a power outage about halfway through the performance, so it had to be cancelled. I was rescheduled for last Friday. BTW, props to the Geffen box office staff for making the rescheduling easy-peasy. That had to have been hectic.

So I finally got to see the show in its entirely, and it went above and beyond what I'd expected from the portion I'd already seen. It takes place in 1988 with Gardner, aging and feeling the effects of a recent stroke and a lifetime of drinking and smoking, having decided to write her autobiography. She has relocated to London, her Hollywood career behind her, and needs money. Feeling her options are telling her story or selling her jewels, she opts to keep the jewels because they hold sentimental value. 

Gardner summons British journalist Peter Shaw to ghost-write her autobiography, but what follows is a cat-and-mouse game with Shaw trying to extract information from a capriciously uncooperative subject. At heart Ava is still the Golden Age of Hollywood grande dame in all her glory, alternately enthusiastically recalling old memories, but also often rebuffing Shaw's entreaties with a tipsy imperiousness.

As Shaw walks Ava through each marriage, actor Aaron Costa Ganis morphs from the ambitious British journalist to portray the excitable Mickey Rooney, then the condescending intellectual Artie Shaw, and finally Sinatra, frustrated by his failing career and the intrusive press that can't get enough of him and Ava. At each of these turns, McGovern alternates between the 1988 Ava to the period of each of her marriages. It's a fantastic technique and Ganis especially does a great job of playing four different characters. McGovern is surprisingly effective as the lusty Gardner. Despite being of such slight build, she's absolutely convincing as the woman once described as "The World's Most Beautiful Animal". Watching her I never once thought of Cora Crawley, but was witnessing a former sex symbol fighting through her waning days.

As the writing progresses, Shaw becomes increasingly excited about the book's prospects until Ava abruptly pulls the plug on the project due to a combination of worry that she's revealed too much and discovering that Shaw had once been successfully sued for libel by Frank Sinatra, with whom Ava remained friends until her death. It was a detail Shaw had neglected to share with her and caused her to distrust him.

It would be decades before Shaw received permission to publish the book. He was working on it at the time of his death in 2012. It was published the following year. Ava Gardner succumbed to bronchial pneumonia in 1990.

Ava: The Secret Conversations runs at the Geffen through May 14.

I don't necessarily agree, but...

But...I'm posting this because it's funny. Not necessarily funny in that failed marriages and divorce are funny in themselves, but...well, in this case, it's funny cuz it's true:

I'm old enough to remember the Charles/Diana/Camilla clusterf*ck, but let's face it, Charles and Diana got married for all the wrong reasons, and I'm glad at least 2/3 of that mess finally got a happy ending. If Diana hadn't been killed in a car accident I'd have wished the same for her. And if nothing else, Charles got one worthwhile son out of the deal.

Also, is there any country on earth that can do pomp and celebrations like the UK? Horses, carriages, troops, crowns, robes, ancient abbeys, castles and rites - I love that they still do that historic stuff. And they do it well.

 

I've actually seen this one pop up a few times today.

 

Who you gonna call?

Mystery Writers of America presented their annual Edgar Awards in New York last week and although I didn't attend, as a member I still receive a copy of the program.

This year's program had what I thought was a really interesting cover - it's designed to look like the Yellow Pages for people looking for a detective:

Some of my personal favorites:

"Krime Scene Kleanup" - LOL

Well done, cover designer! And congrats to all the winners, especially film noir kingpin Eddie Muller.

April Words of Wisdom

Agriculture is the first and most important of all the arts and the tiller of the soil still represents the natural order of things willed by God. --Pope Pius XII

 

There's more beauty in the truth, even if it is a dreadful beauty. --John Steinbeck

I would rather stand and have everybody my enemy than to go along with the crowd to destruction. --A.W. Tozer

 

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. --John Steinbeck

 

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. --George Orwell

More of your conversation would infect my brain. --William Shakespeare (Coriolanus)

Recent reading: "In-N-Out Burger"

 

In-N-Out Burger:

A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules

by Stacy Perman

This is a wonderfully comprehensive story of the legendary Southern California-born burger chain that has remained family-owned through three generations. Founded in Baldwin Park in 1948 by Harry and Esther Snyder, the first In-N-Out was a modest operation that grew into a beloved institution that has always kept food quality and exceptional service at the forefront of its operations, while resisting pressure or temptation to take the path of franchising or going public as other successful chains have done, often to their detriment.

The Snyders had a simple philosophy of offering great food and service while treating their associates (as In-N-Out has always referred to their employees) like family. Well paid and often staying with the company for years, associates start at the bottom and are given ample opportunity to move up through the ranks; in fact, In-N-Out prefers home grown talent.

 

A large part of In-N-Out's history has to do with the California car culture. Snyder was one of the first to utilize the concept of the drive-through lane. As the company grew, stores were strategically located near on- and off-ramps as Southern California's notorious freeway system expanded over the years. It wasn't until the 1990's when they began opening in more urban areas beginning with an In-N-Out in Westwood by UCLA. 

 

Harry and Esther had two sons: Harry Jr. (known as Guy) and Rich. Harry developed a love for auto racing and speed in general leading to a 1970's motorcycle crash, the injuries of which would lead to a prescription drug addiction that would eventually kill him. Rich, considered the more mature and business-like of the two brothers, took over as the head of In-N-Out when Harry Snyder passed away in 1976. When Rich died in a private plane crash just before Christmas 1993, he had expanded the chain from 18 to 93 locations while maintaining the dedication to quality established by his parents.

After Rich's death Guy took over with Esther, who would survive until 2006, at his side. Although he had held a Vice President title, by this time Guy's drug-abuse had sidelined him from pretty much any In-N-Out activities and Rich was in the process of buying him out altogether. But since the paperwork hadn't been signed, Guy was still in. He kept In-N-Out's limited expansion and high standards in place by basically following the blueprint developed by Rich. Guy was devoted to the family business, but continued to struggle with drug addiction and no one seemed to be able to force him to face up to his demons. As a result his health deteriorated and he died of heart failure brought on by his drug abuse in 1999, and since Rich had died childless, Guy's daughter Lynsi became the sole heir to In-N-Out Burger.

 

One thing I didn't notice until I finished the book is that it was published in 2010, so there's been a lot of In-N-Out growth since then. And yet the company still remains in the hands of the Snyder family, still offers great food and service, and remains a beloved Southern California icon with a fanatically devoted following. I'd love to see a more updated version. If you decide to purchase the book, look for the 2010 paperback that includes an update to the original 2009 edition.

The book begins with coverage of an April 2007 opening of the first In-N-Out Burger in Tucson, Arizona, describing the frenzy that accompanied the store's first day of operations as fans descended on it, then tells the story of Harry and Esther and their little burger stand from the beginning. It's a terrific read about the power of family, integrity, and hard work, with some local Southern California history as a backdrop of the story. Just a warning, though: this book will make you crave In-N-Out.

From the book:

One of In-N-Out's most successful marketing strategies came in the form of bumper stickers. In Southern California, starting in the early 1980's, placing an In-N-Out sticker on the back of one's car signified membership in a peculiar sort of club; all along the freeways, horns were honked, thumbs were raised, and head were tipped in recognition.

 

At one point, it became common practice among young men across the Southland to excise the "B" and "R" from the word B-U-R-G-E-R, modifying the sticker to read "IN-IN-OUT URGE"; the clean-cut company was not amused. As a result, the chain discontinued the original sticker and printed up a new one. This time a well-placed image of a Double-Double was placed on the spot where the word "burger" once stood.

 

LOL, I remember those IN-N-OUT URGE stickers...

 

Not gonna lie, this is disappointing

I was thinking about going back to the L.A. Times Festival of Books this year for the first time since The Plague shut things down in 2020, but I ended up home this weekend working on school assignments. 

 

One reason I wanted to go (in addition to hitting up the discount booksellers and adding about a dozen more books I don't need to the "will I ever get around to reading this" pile) was learning that legendary Los Angeles writer James Ellroy would be present. I've been a fan of his work for years, especially both the novel and film version of L.A. Confidential. Now I'm glad I missed it: James Ellroy Says He Can Now Disparage Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential" Adaptation. Not gonna lie, I was stunned to read this.

When L.A. Confidential was released in 1997 Ellroy was very active in promoting it. I remember him saying that the book and the film adaption both stood on their own successfully, like two sides of the same coin. I even wrote a paper about the adaptation in a film class in the early 2000's using examples of the differences between the novel and film, characters and subplots that were reduced or eliminated, and I remember reading quotes from Ellroy praising the adaptation. In fact, I particularly remember a comment in which, having sold the rights to the novel to Warner Bros., Ellroy said that he and his agent considered it unadaptable and as a result I titled the paper "Adapting the Unadaptable". But it turned out that Ellroy and his agent were wrong.

 

While researching the paper, I don't remember seeing one negative comment from Ellroy about the film, director Curtis Hanson, the script adaptation by Hanson and Brian Helgeland (for which they earned a well-deserved Academy Award), or the stellar acting. Kim Basinger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of elegant call girl Lynn Bracken and the film introduced American audiences to Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe, thank you very much. The film also earned nominations for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction, Sound, Film Editing, and Original Dramatic Score, all of which were lost to Titanic. I've seen it mentioned multiple times over the years that if L.A. Confidential had been released in any other year than Titanic, it would have dominated its Oscars, something I happen to agree with. In fact, what I find interesting that despite ruling the Academy Awards that year, there was one category in which James "King of the World" Cameron's epic failed to score even a nomination: that of screenplay.

Adapting a novel into a film or TV show is an art form completely separate than writing a novel or an original screenplay, or developing an original television series. There's different expectations from readers and viewers. Just one example - if I'm reading a novel, I don't expect to get through it in one sitting. It doesn't feel odd to stop at some point and return to it later. With a film, on the other hand, the theater experience expectation is that you'll sit through the whole thing without interruption. Even viewing at home, if you stop watching partway through, there's a good chance it's because the film isn't meeting your expectations or attention sufficiently to stick with it. And television is a whole other animal because you have to take a limited story and figure out how to stretch it over a number of seasons/years.

Another thing to consider is that despite several efforts, the Hanson/Helgeland version of L.A. Confidential is the only adaptation that was successful. An HBO pilot that more closely followed the novel was produced in 2003 (with Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Vincennes and Eric Roberts as Pierce Patchett) but failed to receive an order to series. Another unsuccessful attempt was made by CBS in 2019, with Walt Goggins as Vincennes. In fact, of all the Ellroy works that have been filmed, not one has been anywhere near as successful as L.A. Confidential. I don't know why, after all these years, he felt the need to disparage the 1997 version and the filmmakers who were so passionate about it. 

I'm glad I wasn't in that Festival of Books audience - it would have been shocking and depressing to have to listen to Ellroy rip on such fine work and the amazing people involved in producing one of my all-time favorite films based on one of my all-time favorite novels. Even worse that Ellroy mentioned Hanson's death as a reason to express his displeasure with the film twenty-five years after the fact. Maybe Ellroy should have followed his own advice, taken the high road, and kept this particular opinion (in the immortal words of Sid Hudgens), "Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush." 

Updated 4/25/23: Check out the comments in this thread. I'm not the only one who thinks L.A. Confidential is an all-time great.